Monthly archives for April, 2015

We’ve lived here for nearly two years now and, unless you count going to the zoo (which I really don’t), we haven’t really done any touristy stuff in this preeminent tourist city we live so near. This past Sunday we began to correct this error. We did not quite do “it all”, but we definitely did “it much” (or maybe “it many”?). We drove to the City (because that’s what we call it now, just “the city”) and parked our car at Grace Cathedral. We visited the cable car museum and permanently lost some hearing ability. We rode a cable car and watched the filming of some car commercial. We rode a historic trolley along the Embarcadero (isn’t it neat how the the embarcadero is always near the pier??). Our trolley car even happened to be the one dedicated as a tribute to Detroit’s former (and long gone) glorious trolley system. We visited Ghiradelli Square (because chocolate and ice cream). Finally, like a bunch of clever tourists, we chose to walk up Hyde Street from Ghiradelli to Grace Cathedral (and I do mean “up”). Along the way we stopped by the top end of Lombard Street and joined the throng of tourists just standing and gaping at (and taking photos of) … a street.

Our little guy had a pretty nasty sinus infection that even landed him at urgent care early in our trip (because it’s not really a vacation for Colin until he’s been to urgent care with a high fever). He wasn’t really himself until the last day or so, but he still managed to have some fun.

Here is a grab-bag of leftover cute pictures of Colin that didn’t really fit anywhere else.

Papa, Grandma, Nora, and I joined a line in Tomorrowland’s Innoventions plaza. We weren’t sure what the line was for, exactly, but waiting in lines is kind of just what you do at Disneyland and this … whatever it was … seemed pretty popular.

So we waited for about 15 minutes and eventually got to the front of the line where we learned that we would be meeting (and having our photos taken with) Captain America. It was too late to escape. Unlike Space Mountain, Captain America’s meet and greet has no last minute exit door. The supposed Captain Rogers looked each of us over and instantly deduced that I, the nerdy middle-aged guy at Disneyland with his parents, was the most likely reason this particular group of people had bothered to wait 20 minutes in line to meet a Disney employee in a super suit. He greeted me warmly, shook my hand, and graciously posed for one of the most awkward photographs of my adult life.

Note Nora’s stunned “I have no idea who that is or what is happening” expression.

We don’t know if this happened to anyone else, but a bunny recently broke into our house while we were sleeping! He must have gotten scared off, though, because he dropped his stuff and hopped off without stealing anything. Messy guy, though, he scattered these plastic eggs full of candy all over the living room on the way out.

rubberducky’s chief technical officer has recently accepted a position as a professor of linguistics at the University of Kentucky. To make this possible, the stalwart rubberducky crew will be relocating yet again (hopefully for the last time) to Lexington, Kentucky!

We will all miss California and all of our friends and family here very much, but we are happy to be moving on to literally greener pastures much closer to our loved ones in the frostbitten mitten and Indiana.

We started our Disneyland vacation with a table for 6 at the Plaza Inn, near the intersection of Main Street and Tomorrowland. Most of us had a great time but Colin, it turned out, was absolutely terrified of the characters (especially that dastardly Captain Hook!). We tried to distract him, but there are lots of pictures of Colin cowering or crying that I am not going to post here. Fortunately, Cinderella’s fairy godmother happened along and was able to help us run interference between the boy and the characters.

After our character breakfast at the Plaza Inn, I shared a quiet moment in the shade with Colin. We could see the patio of our restaurant where the breakfast was still going on and other people posing with (and hugging) Pooh bear. Because he had been so afraid inside, I said, “Colin, are you worried about Pooh bear?” He was pretty chill and just waved it off and said, “Nah! He way over there!” with his cute little ‘th’ that sounds a lot like a [d].

It’s a long drive from the Bay Area to the other California, especially if you’re 2. We stopped along the way to eat lunch, play, and dance our wiggles out. Nora had some fun with one of the rattlesnake warning signs and Colin was given a paper airplane by a stranger.